There's a $100 million plan to end paralysis with a synthetic spinal cord

Some say experience is the best teacher, and for Hugh Herr, that
has definitely been the case. His experience
with disability and subsequent need for prosthetics compelled
him to develop what could be the world’s most advanced type of
bionics.

Since its creation in 2014, the center’s goal has been to treat a
wide spectrum of disabilities through the development of advanced
bionics. Now, the center is working on a $100 million, five-year
project that focuses on treating paralysis, depression,
amputation, epilepsy, and Parkinson’s disease through the
development of bionic technologies.

Disability-free world

The projects the researchers are pursuing are nothing short of
cutting-edge.

While today’s prosthetics are useful and can give amputees a way
to regain lost motor functions, Herr and his colleagues think
they can improve upon these devices by combining them with
advanced neural implants. This gives a person’s nerves and
muscles a way to talk to a prosthetic, making it easier for the
device to be controlled and function like a biological limb.

The MIT team sees neural implants being useful for far more
prosthetics, though. The technology could also be used to alter
brain functions to treat neurological or mental disorders.

Meanwhile, a digital nervous system (DNS) powered by
optogenetics — a technique that
uses light to control cells — could allow the researchers to
treat paralysis and Parkinson’s disease by essentially replacing
the biological nervous system. Eventually, the researchers think
they many be able to engineer cells and tissues to grow organs
that can repair or replace biological structures.

The World Health Organization estimates 40
to 80 cases of paralysis per million people, and that’s just
one of the conditions being focused on at the Center for Extreme
Bionics. If the center’s researchers are able to find ways to use
technology to help all of those people, Herr’s dream of a world
in which disability is no more may just come to fruition.